The Park Bench
by Dana Hale
Summary: XF2 Movie Spoiler. Why is Scully scared to work with Mulder again? A tender conversation is to be had while they sit on a park bench together...not their park bench in Washington, but it will do.


TITLE: "The Park Bench"

AUTHOR: Dana Hale

DISTRIBUTION: Sure, ask first.

RATING: K

KEYWORDS: Mulder/Scully

SPOILERS: XF2

SUMMARY: Mulder: Scully, I need you on this case. Scully: And that's what scares me. How Scully came to the decision to say yes.

DISCLAIMER: The X-Files television show and characters belong to Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and the Fox Corporation.

When she told him that she would have to think about it, she could see both the hurt and the hope in his eyes. He noticed right away that she wasn't jumping at the chance to relive the glory with him again, but at least he didn't get the "I'm not your partner anymore" answer from her. But what the heck, what was there to lose at this point by asking her?

Yes, it had been awkward asking, but he really couldn't picture anyone else helping with this case. He knew her so well...her strengths, her integrity, her talents. With their knowledge that they had acquired together over the years, she would be so beneficial, so...oh who was he kidding. To have this chance to see her again, to work with her everyday, the nature of this case...maybe her heart would open up to him again. He had given her the space that she asked for, but enough was enough. He suffered through the last two years of burying himself in his new job trying to forget her. Trying to forget how good they were together. Trying to forget that she was so much a part of him that she was all that he had left in this world. Trying to forget that they had a son together. Trying to forget how much he loved her...how much he still truly loves her. He deemed it impossible to forget. How could she simply forget? Did she?

With the shrill of his cell phone, his heart skipped a beat as he prepared to hear her voice.

"Mulder," he answered, trying to sound normal.

"It's me," she said matter-of-factly. And then there was silence. He wanted to smile at the sound of her voice, but he found the moment to be bittersweet.

"Hi," he said to break the silence, suddenly terrified that maybe she really didn't want to talk to him.

"I've done some thinking..." she let her voice fade.

"And?" He tried not get his hopes up, but couldn't help it.

"You know that park bench downtown in front of the deli? Meet me there in a half hour."

She got there first. It was a cold night, the sky dark and heavy with snow clouds that refused to release their crystal flakes, at least for now. He could see her breath in the air as he approached her. She was rubbing her hands together trying to keep warm. Her long hair was blowing away from her face in the breeze, exposing her rosy cheeks to the raw chill of the night air. Under the glow of the street lamp, Mulder thought the scene of her sitting there on the park bench looked straight out of a classic movie. She was stunning.

"This seat taken?" he found himself saying as he approached her, his boots crunching in the packed snow.

"It's not our bench in Washington, but it will do," she said, much to his delight of her using the word "our."

She sat on her hands as she moved over to make some room for him to sit. He bundled up his overcoat and crossed his arms over his chest for warmth as he got comfortable on the bench.

They both stared out into the street. It was quiet. Peaceful. Not many people were out and about this late at night. He heard her take in a breath and then slowly let it out. He told himself that he would let her speak first, but she was taking too long.

"I've missed you, Scully," he said sincerely, turning to look at her. She continued to stare ahead. "You haven't called me in a while."

"Please don't..."

"Please don't what? Miss you? Sorry, but you can't stop me from doing that."

She finally turned to look at him solemnly. "See, this is what I was afraid of. That if I agreed to help you, you'd make this personal."

"How can it not be personal to me when it comes to you?" he said a bit too loud. "You know how much I love you."

She shook her head in frustration, closed her eyes, and let out another breath.

"I can't hear this right now...I didn't ask you to come here to talk about this."

"Right. Okay. So I see you still need SPACE. How much more SPACE, Scully, another two years? Will that do?" Now he was frustrated. He certainly didn't want to be getting angry with her at a time like this. He knew he needed to keep his cool. He really did want her by his side on this case. "I'm sorry," he said calmly.

Scully bit her lip to tame her tongue from giving him an outburst of words that would only add fuel the fire. She didn't want it to go like this either. Then she carefully set aside her own anger and said, "I read the case file...I know what you're trying to do...what this case would do for me, for us."

"I don't want to force this on you, Scully," Mulder chose his next words carefully. "I just thought that it would...that maybe it could...help us deal with the hurt of...losing him."

They never talked about William. He was the one large elephant in the room that got in the way of everything. She swallowed hard when he said this. She was amazed that he could bring it up. She had buried her hurt for all these years and never wanted to speak or think about the fact that she once had a child. It was almost blasphemous to hear Mulder mention their son. That's why she left...she just couldn't deal with it any longer so she decided to reject everything that reminded her of her son, including Mulder. She knew that someday she would have to face this pain and bring it back to the surface so that she could finally deal with it and start the healing process. So she had told Mulder that she needed some space. She was a doctor, after all. She knew that it was unhealthy to harbor all of the guilt of what she had done; the guilt of giving her son away and the guilt of writing him off as if he never existed. She was so very tired of feeling broken and alone.

"I guess on some level, I figured this case could maybe help me work through some things..." Scully admitted.

"Scully, it's time that we BOTH deal with this. I am asking you to help me with this case because I need your expertise, someone I can trust. But I'm also asking you for personal reasons...I just want...I want...US back."

"I know," she said softly, not able to look at him.

It was getting colder out. He saw her shiver.

"Why don't we get out of the cold. I'll make you some tea. Come home."

"You know I can't do that right now."

"You'd be surprised how well I've kept the place clean. I even have the girly sheets that you picked out still on the bed."

She couldn't help but smile at that, and he caught a glimpse of it. He reached his hand over and tilted her face so that he could look into her eyes. "Come home," he said tenderly.

Her smile faded. "I can't..."

He nodded in understanding, even though that's not the answer he wanted to hear. But he expected as much. He stood and started to walk away.

"Mulder," she said hastily as she got up from the bench. He stopped in his place and turned around to look at her. She put her hands in her coat pockets. "I'll...I'll uh, see you tomorrow. We have witnesses to interview."

He smiled at her in response and watched her as she walked away.


End file.
